The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for the pulling apart or separation of substantially flat products, especially printed products, arriving in an imbricated product stream or formation.
Generally speaking, the separation apparatus of the present development is of the type comprising an infeed device for the products and a conveyor device arranged after such infeed device. The conveying velocity of the conveyor device is greater than that of the infeed device.
Such type of apparatus is known to the art from German Patent Publication No. 2,822,060, and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,286, granted May 6, 1980. With this prior art equipment the conveyor device is constituted by an endless conveyor element which is equipped with entrainment members arranged at a uniform spacing from one another. These entrainment members, the spacing of which is greater than the mutual spacing of the products in the inbound or arriving imbricated product stream (the so-called imbricated spacing), engage the trailing edges of the products. The entrainment members thus pull apart the products within the imbricated product stream or formation, and thus, make the imbricated spacing uniform. With this equipment the pulling apart of the products only is accomplished by an amount necessary for obtaining such uniformity of the imbricated spacing. The equipment therefore is not provided for the purpose of increasing the spacing between the products by an appreciable amount, i.e. for instance to double such spacing. In order to ensure for a positive seizing of each arriving product by an entrainment member the infeed device and the endless conveyor element must be synchronized with one another which, in turn, requires a corresponding expenditure in equipment.
As is known from the European Patent Publication No. 0 013 920 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,559, granted June 8, 1982, printed products are frequently transported in packs or packages, so-called product sets, each containing two products. However, if the products are to be individually processed following their transport, then it is necessary to again separate the overlying products in each pack or set to such an extent that the products can be individually manipulated. The previously described state-of-the-art equipment is, however, not suitable for this purpose.